3 January 2011 was a historic day in Germany’s military bases. For the last time young men registered at barrack gates with their call-up papers in their hands. For the last time conscripts were issued with uniforms and combat helmets at the stores. After almost 200 years, Germany saw the end of the compulsory military service that – with interruptions – had been an important part of the German armed forces over the past centuries. Strictly speaking, it is not really the end, but the suspension of basic military service. The principle of compulsory military service remains enshrined in the Basic Law and can be immediately re-introduced in the event of a state of defence. In the future, basic military service for men, which had been reduced to only six months in mid-2010, will be replaced by a new voluntary period of military service for men and women lasting from 12 to 23 months.
The suspension of conscription also means the end of the traditional idea of an army built on the principle of general military service. The majority of Bundeswehr soldiers were conscripts that served alongside short-service volunteers who signed up for a fixed term and traditional career soldiers. Since its foundation in 1955 the Bundeswehr initially had the task of securing the border between the NATO and Warsaw Pact blocs jointly with the Western Allies. The Cold War between East and West ended 20 years ago – and by suspending conscription and initiating a reorganization the German armed forces are now drawing the final consequences from this fundamental shift in security and defence policy in Central Europe. In any event, conscription had already been transformed in recent years. On the one hand, more and more conscripts were making use of their right to refuse to “render military service involving the use of arms”, which is also laid down in the Basic Law. The alternative civilian service (Zivildienst) for conscientious objectors simultaneously became increasingly important for hospitals and social institutions. At the same time, the army called up fewer and fewer conscripts in each year group. It had less demand for conscripts because its increasingly complex weapons systems required longer training periods while the duration of military service was gradually being cut. At the end of 2009, the Federal Government agreed a reduction to six months, which meant the complete suspension of conscription was no longer a big step. From mid-2011 onwards no young men will be conscripted to serve in the Bundeswehr. The force, which integrated the GDR National People’s Army after German unification in 1990 and even grew in size for a while, will be reduced to a professional army with at most 185,000 soldiers. As in other European countries, the basic restructuring of the German military is not only due to changed security policy circumstances: as a result of the general budgetary situation the Bundeswehr has to make savings of several billion euros over coming years. Whether the total will be as high as that in the end remains open; nevertheless, a firm decision has been made to reduce the size of the Bundeswehr from its current 250,000 soldiers.
Latterly the army took some 60,000 conscripts a year. However, the new challenges the Bundeswehr is facing in the 21st century – for example, on foreign missions like the one in Afghanistan – require a more professional military training than the six-month basic military service can provide. Furthermore, the idea of countering the militarism of the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht with “citizens in uniform” is now no longer dependent on conscription. When only 16% of a year group are called up to do military service, the armed forces have to be firmly anchored in society by other means. Making do without these short-term soldiers does not only save equipment and infrastructure, but also releases almost 10,000 soldiers who were involved in training them. The Bundeswehr has a more urgent need for these personnel elsewhere. “Thinking should focus on the mission” – and no longer on national defence at Germany’s borders – is the new guiding principle. The army whose operational area before German reunification ended on the banks of the Elbe in the middle of Germany has become an active participant in global peace operations – and is therefore a reflection of Germany’s increased international responsibility since reunification. In 1993 a battalion donned United Nations blue helmets for the first time and set off for Somalia. A few years later Germany provided part of the Kosovo Force (KFOR), the international NATO security force in the Balkans to monitor the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and the demilitarization of Kosovo. The Bundeswehr moved further away from the old NATO area and the conventional idea of national defence than ever before in 2002 when it went to Afghanistan with US allies on behalf of the international community as part of the ISAF mission.
German soldiers are currently participating in eleven international peace missions – for example, as part of the anti-piracy Operation Atalanta on the Horn of Africa or the UNIFIL mission off the Lebanese coast to prevent arms smuggling to Hisbollah. International missions, together with allies in NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, have now become normal.
The Bundeswehr’s structures do not yet reflect the new range of tasks. Without a doubt, the Federal Defence Minister faces the challenge of making tomorrow’s Bundeswehr smaller, cheaper and nonetheless more effective. Experts estimate the reorganization will take five to seven years. It will not only be an internal responsibility of the ministry and the army. Without conscription, the Bundeswehr will not have the pool from which it recruited new talent for short-service and career soldiers in the past. In order to have enough new soldiers in the future, the Bundeswehr will have to advertise for volunteers – and make clear to the population why these soldiers continue to be needed in the future.////
